Mindful Attention and Awareness Prospectively Predicts Stress in Daily Life: A Multilevel Modeling Approach

Chronic stress increases a person’s vulnerability for physical and mental health conditions that take root in the “common soil” of inflammation. Dispositional, or trait, mindfulness has been identified as a protective factor against perceived stress. However, the theory that trait mindfulness can prospectively predict lower perceived stress in natural settings has yet to be thoroughly tested. The current study used a daily diary prospective design to observe perceived stress in response to difficult events. Participants completed a baseline survey capturing their levels of mindful attention and awareness and neuroticism. Then, participants completed one week of daily surveys in which they indicated their levels of perceived stress and the number of difficult events they experienced. Mindful attention and awareness negatively predicted daily fluctuations in perceived stress, even when controlling for time, neuroticism, and the number of difficult events experienced. The interaction between mindful attention and awareness and daily difficult events proved non-significant in a model predicting daily fluctuations in perceived stress. Visual analysis showed modest support for the moderation hypothesis. Mindful attention and awareness was a significant predictor of perceived stress, including in natural settings and with a prospective time course. Findings support the use of mindfulness-based interventions that increase mindful attention and awareness to decrease perceived stress.